That’s OK! Not every schoolteacher teaches every subject. For the elementary grades, textbooks with teacher’s guides will give you the structure and the teaching tools that you need to teach subjects you’re unfamiliar with.

When your child reaches high school, you can call on subject specialists to help you out! Think about reaching out to your friends, family, faith community, homeschool groups, local networks, and online communities to for help with tutoring your teen, grading essays, or answering questions. You can also have your high schooler take outside courses at a co-op, community college, or online.

For an added boost to your confidence, keep in mind that homeschooling melds two of the strongest predictors of academic achievement: parental involvement and one-on-one learning.

Yes! For a long time, the most commonly expressed concern about homeschooling was whether homeschooled children would be disadvantaged socially. However, studies have found that homeschoolers do well socially, emotionally, and psychologically.

And opportunities for social enrichment continue to grow! With the rise in homeschooling popularity, there are literally countless ways homeschooling families can find socialization opportunities—through volunteering, co-ops, sports, youth groups, community orchestras, part-time jobs, and the list goes on. In fact, for many families, the hardest part is deciding which activities to say no to.

As more families choose homeschooling through high school, new sports opportunities are emerging. Here are just a few of the opportunities available each year:

• National and regional homeschool sports associations—Your teen could compete in a regional or national tournament offered by one of the growing number of organizations providing support for homeschool teams.
• Homeschool teams—New teams for homeschoolers are being organized throughout the country by homeschool groups and parents. You could connect with local groups, check on Facebook, or do a Google search to locate teams near you. You could also check our group search feature and use the “Sports” filter to quickly see if there are any sports groups in your area.
• Sports associations—Local sports associations offer both recreational and competitive leagues for a variety of sports. Competitive teams provide the opportunity to play at the local, regional, national, and even international level.
• Public school teams—You can check to see if your state has equal access laws, which allow homeschooled students to try out for spots on local public school teams.
• Private school teams—Many local private schools let homeschooled students try out for their teams.